Religious Liberty

The Issue

A‌mericans remain a deeply religious people. The vast majority of Americans ‌believe in God or a higher being, and many say that they pray daily. Religious groups play an indispensable role in American society, providing education, health care, and countless social services. Religious individuals and institutions have a right to exercise their religious beliefs that is not confined to the private sphere but is protected from government burden and discrimination in public life.

The ability to work, live, and provide services compatible with one’s beliefs is essential for maintaining a just and free society, yet this freedom has suffered erosion in recent years. America must return to a more reasonable and historically accurate understanding of religious liberty, upholding religious and moral conscience as an invaluable support for healthy republican government and human flourishing. This requires that government respect the role of religious institutions and refrain from establishing religion or prohibiting its free exercise.

The American Founders believed that strong religious congregations and vibrant faith communities were essential to ordered liberty. As a result, Americans have long enjoyed the fullest religious liberty in the world and have reaped the benefits of a flourishing civil society rooted in that religious freedom. Policymakers must restore a strong and stable society of individual and political self-government in which the people can give religious and faith-based institutions a central place in civic and public life.

Recommendations

Understand and Promote the Benefits of Religious Practice to Civil Society. Religious practice promotes the well-being of individuals, families, and the community. Regular attendance at religious services is linked to healthy, stable family life, strong marriage, and positive outcomes for children. It correlates with reduced rates of domestic abuse, crime, substance abuse, and addiction, and an increase in physical and mental health, longevity, and educational attainment. Americans engaged in the free exercise of religion participate actively in charitable giving and volunteerism, including through organized volunteering and informal acts of compassion. Yet, despite the societal benefits of religion, the expression of faith in the public square has faced many challenges posed by the never-ending growth of the regulatory state. The law must make as much room as possible for the practice and accommodation of religious faith.

Protect the Freedom of Conscience of Patients, Parents, and Employers in Health Care. The right of Americans to live and work in accordance with their religious beliefs is increasingly under assault, especially from burdensome government policies. For example, many provisions of Obamacare weakened family choice of coverage, undermined parental participation in minor children’s health care decisions, and undercut family values in health care. The law’s anti-conscience mandate forced countless religious organizations, family businesses, and other employers to provide health plans that included coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization—regardless of their religious or moral objections. Additionally, regulations finalized by the Obama Administration prohibited differential treatment on the basis of so-called gender identity in health services and would have penalized (until a Texas court temporarily stayed the mandate) medical professionals and health care organizations that, as a matter of faith, moral conviction, or professional judgment, deem maleness and femaleness as biological realities to be respected and affirmed, not altered or treated as diseases.

Policymakers should enact permanent conscience protections for individuals, families, employers, and insurers to prevent them from being forced to offer, provide, or pay for coverage that violates their deeply held beliefs. Among such protections would be the Conscience Protection Act, which strengthens conscience protections by providing a private right of action if a party (such as a hospital administrator or health care practitioner) claims to have been discriminated against for following his conscience with regard to abortion. Providing individuals with their day in court is a much better system than the current one, which leaves Americans at the mercy of bureaucrats who are often ideologically opposed to the very conscience protections they are charged with enforcing. To truly protect religious liberty and further erosions of freedom more generally, health care reform at the federal and state levels must move to a patient-centered, market-based system that provides coverage choices that are consistent with providers’ and patients’ moral and religious beliefs.

Protect the Freedom of Individuals and Institutions to Continue Telling the Truth About Marriage. Redefining marriage has been a direct and demonstrated threat to religious freedom that marginalizes those who affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Already, in Washington, DC, Illinois, and Massachusetts, faith-based adoption and foster care organizations have given up the good work they were doing on behalf of vulnerable children because the government would have forced them—regardless of their religious or moral objections—to place children with same-sex couples. Family businesses, such as photographers, bakers, florists, and others involved in the wedding industry, have been hauled into court and fined, with some being forced out of business entirely, because they declined to provide their services for a same-sex wedding ceremony, which is in violation of their religious beliefs. Now that the Supreme Court has mandated the redefinition of marriage in all 50 states, policymakers should ensure that Americans who still believe the truth about marriage remain free to promote marriage as a union of a man and a woman, and are not subject to government discrimination because of these beliefs. Lawmakers should also oppose policies, regulations, and guidance that provide special privileges based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as these policies weaken the freedom of citizens and associations to affirm their beliefs, specifically, that maleness and femaleness are not arbitrary constructs, but objective ways of being human.

Promote Religious Freedom Abroad. To win hearts and minds in the cause of democracy, advancing freedom, and promoting stability, U.S. foreign policy and public diplomacy should systematically engage religious audiences abroad and address the role of religion. Such active diplomacy bolsters the United States’ powerful model of religious freedom and is crucial to America’s role in the world. The United States should press all governments to recognize the universal right of religious liberty. Religious freedom should be the rule for all, not the exception enjoyed by a majority.

Facts and Figures

FACT: Religious belief is widespread in America, and it has an important, positive impact on society. Policymakers should recognize the important role that religion plays.

Three in five adults say they have no doubt that God exists. Altogether, about nine of 10 adults believe in God or a higher power.

On average, individuals who reported attending religious services at least once a week were 25 percent more likely to give to charitable causes than those who reported attending religious services no more than a few times a year.

Marriages in which both husband and wife attend religious services frequently were 2.4 times less likely to end in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse attends religious services.

Volunteerism among individuals who attend religious services each week tends to be greater than the national average as well as than the average among those who attend religious services less frequently.